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Your board helps you visualize the flow of work as it moves from defined to completed. When you add swimlanes, you can also visualize the status of work that supports different service-level classes. You can create a swimlane to represent any other dimension that supports your tracking needs.
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Your board helps you visualize the flow of work as it moves from defined to completed. Swimlanes let you separate and track different classes of work on your board (for example, high‑priority items, expedited work, or technical debt). You can create swimlanes to represent any dimension that supports your tracking and flow needs.
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What you'll learn:
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- What swimlanes are and when to use them.
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- How to add, reorder, color, and remove swimlanes.
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- How to configure swimlane rules to automatically route items.
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- Limits and availability of swimlane rules.
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Quick steps:
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1. Open your team board: **Overview** > **Boards**.
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2. Choose **Configure board settings** (gear icon) and select **Swimlanes**.
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3. Add or remove swimlanes, set colors, and save.
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4. (Optional) Add swimlane rules to automatically place work items.
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## Prerequisites
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@@ -30,165 +42,139 @@ You can use up to 50 swimlanes to sort work on your board and track items differ
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- High priority items
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- Service-level class
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- Date-driven requirements
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- Dependencies for or from another team
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- Dependencies to or from another team
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- Blocked items
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- Technical debt or other engineering work that isn't a specific user story
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## Track work in swimlanes
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You can drag items into a swimlane and reorder them within the swimlane.
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Drag items into a swimlane and reorder them within the swimlane.
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> [!TIP]
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> -Enter`o` to expand all swimlanes and `u` to collapse all swimlanes. To move the focus up or down, enter the `↑↓` up/down arrows. For more information, see [Keyboard shortcuts](../../project/navigation/keyboard-shortcuts.md).
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> -When you have many swimlanes or cards on your board, you might encounter slow performance when dragging a card. We recommend that you use swimlanes with card styles, tags, and board filters to manage your work items. If you have numerous cards in the default lane, place that lane lower on the board to enhance performance when dragging a card to another swimlane.
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> -Press`o` to expand all swimlanes and `u` to collapse all swimlanes. Use the arrow keys (↑/↓) to move focus between lanes. For more information, see [Keyboard shortcuts](../../project/navigation/keyboard-shortcuts.md).
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> -If you have many swimlanes or cards, dragging performance might be slower. Use swimlanes in combination with card styles, tags, and board filters to manage large boards. If the default lane contains many cards, place it lower on the board to make dragging to other lanes faster.
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> [!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
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> [!NOTE]
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> The default lane appears unlabeled on the board. You can rename it, but you can't delete it or apply rules to it.
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You can also focus on a single swimlane by collapsing all other lanes.
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You can also focus on a single swimlane by collapsing the other lanes.
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> [!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
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> 
Identify the swimlanes that support your tracking needs and add them to your board.
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::: moniker range="azure-devops"
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1.[Open your board](kanban-quickstart.md). If you're not a team admin, [get added as one](../../organizations/settings/add-team-administrator.md). Only team and project administrators can customize the board.
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2. Choose :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/blue-gear.png" border="false"::: **Configure board settings** to configure the board.
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/choose-configure-board-settings.png" alt-text="Screenshot of board, Choose Configure board settings.":::
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3. Choose **Swimlanes**, choose **Add swimlane**, and then enter the name of the swimlane you want to add. For example, here we enter *Expedite*. You can optionally select the more actions icon :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/more-actions.png" border="false"::: to insert a new swimlane above or below another swimlane.
3. Choose **Swimlanes**, choose **Add swimlane**, and enter the swimlane name (for example, *Expedite*). Use the more actions icon :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/more-actions.png" border="false"::: to insert a lane above or below another lane.
:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/add-swimlane-new-board-hubs-enabled.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the Add swimlane dialog in board settings.":::
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4. To set the color of the swimlane, choose a color from the drop-down menu. To reset the swimlane to the default, choose :::image type="icon" source="../media/icons/refresh.png" border="false"::: **Reset to default color**.
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4. To set the color of the swimlane, choose a color from the drop-down menu. To reset the swimlane to the default, choose :::image type="icon" source="../media/icons/refresh.png" border="false"::: **Reset to default color**.
:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/pick-swimlane-color.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the swimlane color picker.":::
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5. To reorder a swimlane, choose the up or down menu selector :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/context-menu-selector.png" border="false"::: to move it up or down. To remove a swimlane, choose :::image type="icon" source="../media/icons/trash-can.png" border="false"::: the trash bin icon, but first move all items out of the lane.
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5. To reorder a swimlane, choose the up/down selector :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/context-menu-selector.png" border="false":::. To remove a swimlane, choose the trash icon :::image type="icon" source="../media/icons/trash-can.png" border="false"::: after you move all items out of the lane.
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/move-remove-swimlane-options.png" alt-text="Screenshot of board Settings, Swimlane tab, swimlane menu options.":::
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/move-remove-swimlane-options.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing reorder and remove swimlane options.":::
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6. When you're done with your changes, choose **Save**.
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::: moniker-end
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::: moniker range=" < azure-devops"
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1.[Open your board](kanban-quickstart.md). If you're not a team admin, [get added as one](../../organizations/settings/add-team-administrator.md). Only team and project admins can customize the board.
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::: moniker range="<azure-devops"
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2. Choose the :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/blue-gear.png" border="false"::: gear icon to configure the board and set general team settings.
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> [!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
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3. Choose **Swimlanes** and then choose the :::image type="icon" source="../media/icons/green_plus_icon.png" border="false"::: plus icon and enter the name of the swimlane you want to add.
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> [!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
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The default lane appears unlabeled on the board. You can rename it to anything, but you can't delete it. Also, you can rename it directly from the board.
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4. To reorder your swimlanes, grab the lane and move it up or down.
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1.[Open your board](kanban-quickstart.md). If you're not a team admin, [get added as one](../../organizations/settings/add-team-administrator.md). Only team and project admins can customize the board.
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2. Choose the :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/blue-gear.png" border="false"::: gear icon to configure the board and set team settings.
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3. Choose **Swimlanes** and then choose the :::image type="icon" source="../media/icons/green_plus_icon.png" border="false"::: plus icon and enter the swimlane name.
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> [!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
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5. If you need to delete a swimlane, first move all items out of the lane. Then open the Settings dialog, choose the :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/actions-icon.png" border="false"::: actions icon, and select **Remove**.
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> [!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
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6. When you're done with your changes, choose **Save**.
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4. To reorder swimlanes, grab a lane and move it up or down.
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5. To delete a swimlane, first move all items out of it. Then open Settings, choose the :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/actions-icon.png" border="false"::: actions icon, and select **Remove**.
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6. When you're done with changes, choose **Save**.
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::: moniker-end
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::: moniker range="azure-devops"
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## Set up swimlane rules
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Swimlane rules are similar to style rules but allow you to set conditions on your board to automatically move work items into specific lanes. For example, you can set up a lane for each person on your team. When you assign a work item, it gets placed into that person's lane.
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Swimlane rules allow you to automatically route work items into lanes based on field criteria. For example, you can create a lane per person and use a rule that places items into that lane when the item is assigned.
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Swimlane rules are executed in order. Once a rule is met, it executes and moves on to the next work item. For example, if Lane 1 has a rule that says "where priority = 1" and Lane 2 has a rule that says "where priority = 2", a work item with priority = 1 gets moved into Lane 1.
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Rules are evaluated in order. When a rule matches, it executes and evaluation continues with the next work item. For example, if Lane 1 has a rule "where Priority = 1" and Lane 2 has "where Priority = 2", an item with Priority = 1 goes to Lane 1.
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The following limits apply to swimlanes:
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Limits for swimlane rules:
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- Up to five rules per lane
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- A maximum of 25 rules in total
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- Only `AND` conditions are supported
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- A maximum of 25 rules in total per board
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- Only AND conditions are supported
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> [!NOTE]
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> Manual movement of items into these lanes is restricted to ensure consistency with the configured rules. To move items into a swimlane with configured rules, ensure that the items meet the criteria defined in the swimlane rules. Adjust the item properties accordingly so that they automatically move into the correct swimlane.
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> Manual movement into lanes with configured rules might be restricted to ensure consistency. To move an item into a rule-managed lane, make sure the item meets the lane's rule criteria.
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Do the following steps to set up swimlane rules for your board.
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### Swimlane rules—availability
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1. From your board, choose the :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/team-settings-gear-icon.png" border="false"::: gear icon to **Configure board settings**.
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- Azure DevOps Services (cloud): swimlane rules are supported and available to cloud organizations.
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- Azure DevOps Server (on-premises): availability and feature parity depend on server version. If your on-premises server doesn't show swimlane rules, consider upgrading to a more recent Azure DevOps Server release or consult your server release notes and upgrade guidance to confirm support.
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2. Select **Swimlanes**, select the **swimlane** or **[+ Add swimlane](#add-or-remove-a-swimlane)**, and then select **+ Add criteria**.
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Do the following steps to set up swimlane rules for your board.
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/add-swimlane-criteria.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing sequence of buttons to select to add a swimlane rule.":::
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1. From your board, choose :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/team-settings-gear-icon.png" border="false"::: **Configure board settings**.
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2. Select **Swimlanes**, select the **swimlane** or **[+ Add swimlane](#add-or-remove-a-swimlane)**, and then select **+ Add criteria**.
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3. Choose from the dropdown menus for each of the following entries: **Field**, **Operator**, and **Value**, and then choose **Save**. For more information, see the [examples in the next section](#examples-of-swimlane-rules).
:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/swimlane-rule-criteria.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing field, operator, and value selections for swimlane rule.":::
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3. Choose the **Field**, **Operator**, and **Value** from the dropdowns, then choose **Save**. See the following examples of common patterns.
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> [!TIP]
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> You can't assign rules to the Default lane, but you can optionally rename it.
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> You can't assign rules to the Default lane, but you can rename it.
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When your board refreshes, your work items are listed within the appropriate swimlane.
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When your board refreshes, your work items are listed in the appropriate swimlane.
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### Examples of swimlane rules
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The following examples show some of the ways you can use and set up swimlane rules.
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-**Track priority**
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Create rules for the `Work Item Type` and `Priority` fields so items automatically move into the appropriate swimlane.
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-**Track priority**. We created rules for the `Work Item Type` and `Priority` fields, so work items automatically go into the appropriate swimlane.
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**Settings**
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/priority-swimlane-rule-setup.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing swimlane rules set up by priority.":::
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**Board results**
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/board-priority-swimlanes.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing board with priority swimlanes.":::
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/board-priority-swimlanes.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing priority swimlanes on board.":::
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-**Track parents and children**
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Use rules for `Work Item Type` to highlight features, user stories, and bugs in separate lanes.
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-**Track the parents of your work items**. We created rules for the `Work item type` field, so you can quickly see parents (features) and children (user stories and bugs) in their own swimlanes on the board.
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**Settings**
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/work-item-type-swimlane-rule-setup.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing rules for work item types.":::
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/work-item-type-swimlane-rule-setup.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing rules set up for work item types.":::
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**Board results**
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/board-track-parent-work-items-swimlanes.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing parent work item swimlanes on board.":::
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/board-track-parent-work-items-swimlanes.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing board with parent/child swimlanes.":::
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-**Track an individual's work**
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Create rules for `Assigned to` so items go to the assigned user's lane.
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-**Track each person's work on your team**. We created rules for the `Assigned to` field, so that when you assign a work item, it goes into that user's lane.
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**Settings**
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/assigned-to-swimlane-rule-setup.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing rule criteria for swimlane, by Assigned To field.":::
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**Board results**
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/board-assigned-to-swimlanes.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing swimlanes grouped by priority.":::
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/assigned-to-swimlane-rule-setup.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing rule criteria for swimlane by Assigned To.":::
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::: moniker-end
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**Board results**
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:::image type="content" source="media/expedite/board-assigned-to-swimlanes.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing board with swimlanes grouped by assigned person.":::
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## Query for work items based on swimlane
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You can track which work items get added to a board swimlane by creating a query and using the [Board Lane field](../queries/query-by-workflow-changes.md#kanban_query_fields).
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